Television apparatus



1960 H. c. LEE 2,965,710

TELEVISION APPARATUS Filed NOV. 3, 1958 '5 Information G3 Vl 5+ Signal GI Source l --E- Bl l3 Phase 1 Sinusoidal '5 Splitter 4 Carrier J1 7 I4 Generator Output Phase (cos w t) Reverser F |g.l. I

' 23 IOA 20A 2| Information POIHQIIY Linear Phuse 22-3 Signal Doubly Conventional Source Balanced F'Her W5 Transmitter (ow Modulator (w cutoff=- i Sinusoidal Carrier Generator (cos w tl 26 Partially Lo (Pass 29 Conventional| Doubly S P lcgg-e Receiver Balanced (w f ff=w Modulator Sinusoidal A35 Delay Carrier Line Generator (cos w t) WITNESSES |NVENTO R Hon C. Lee Qm ,.M' /i%% g? ATTORNEY .in the desampling process.

United States Patent ()7 TELEVISION APPARATUS Hon C. Lee, Cranford, NJ., assignor to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, East Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Nov. 3, 1958, Ser. No. 771,436

' 7 Claims. (Cl. 178-6.8)

being interlaced in a predetermined sequence before transmission. At a receiver, a desampler synchronized with the sampler at the transmitter, reforms the samples and distributes them to channels corresponding to the channels at the transmitter.

In the past, extremely narrow pulses have generally been used for sampling. Disadvantages of such narrow pulses are: (1) Loss of information in the frequency :band w 2 to w where w, is the fundamental frequency of the sampling. As will be shown later, distoitionless reproduction of a high definition signal using narrow pulses can only be obtained if the pulses have zero pulse width. In practice, it is difficult if not impossible to produce such a pulse train. It can be shown that the case of increasing pulse width corresponds exactly to the case of transmitting the interlaced information at reduced amplitude followed by loss of information in the reproduced signal at a receiver. (2) Inadequate control of the amplitude of the interlaced information. In practice, it might be desirable to transmit the interlaced material at reduced amplitude in order to reduce the undesirable effect due to spurious information inherent This, of course, could be achieved by changing the width of the sampling pulses at the transmitter, but this is undesirable at the receiver as pointed out in the foregoing. The percentage change has the disadvantages that (1) pre-setting of the DC.

level of the sampling wave is necessary, and (2) relatively expensive, square wave, sampling pulse and desampling pulse generators are required.

It can be shown that for distortionless reproduction of high definition signals, the sampling and desampling pulses ideally should have zero pulse width. A pulse having substantially zero pulse width is hereinafter referred to as an impulse. Impulse sampling means that a high definition signal is being sampled by a train of pulses having very nearly zero pulse width, and impulse desampling means that the sampled high definition signal is desampled by a train of pulses having very nearly .zero pulse width. A train of "such impulses can be represented by a Fourier series. .quency limitations existing in a picture tube of a television receiver, only the first two terms of this Fourier series need to be considered. ,the two terms .can be represented by a function Because of the fre- In mathematical form,

(1+2 cos w t), The samedistortionless reproduction of high definition signals as can be obtained with impulse sampling and desampling, can be obtained if the original 2,965,710 Patented Dec. 20, 1960 high definition signal is modulated by a function (1+2 cos w r) at the transmitter, and then demodulated by the same function at the receiver.

By inspection of the function (1+2 cos w t), it can be seen that there should be a direct path for the input signal, and another path which will provide the necessary modulation.

This invention overcomes the disadvantages of prior sampling and desampling systems by using sinusoidal pulses to simulate impulse sampling and desampling. It is well known that a doubly balanced modulator (i.e. both the carrier and input signal are balanced) when properly adjusted, provides no direct path for the input signal, and that its output contains mainly the product of the input signal and the carrier. This invention uses a partially doubly balanced modulator consisting of a pair of similar, push-pull connected vacuum tubes, operating class A. A sinusoidal sampling carrier is applied to two corresponding grids of the tubes, out-ofphase. The information signal is divided by a phase splitter into two signals, one of which is applied directly to another grid of one of the tubes, and the other of which is applied through an attenuator to a corresponding grid of the other tube. This modulator will simulate a function (a +a cos w t), where a represents a direct path for the input signal, and a cos w t represents the modulated term. The constants a and a are determined by adjustment of the attenuation constant k, and the operating conditions of the tubes. By adjusting the attenuation constant k, a ratio of a a of 2 can .be obtained. Thus, the function (1+2 cos w t) can be obtained.

An object of the invention is to simulate impulse sampling with sinusoids.

Another object of this invention is to provide improved samplers and desamplers for high definition television.

Another object of this invention is to use partially doubly balanced modulators for sampling and desampling.

This invention will now be described with reference to the annexed drawings, of which:

Fig. 1 is a circuit schematic of a partially doubly balanced modulator embodying this invention;

Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a television transmitter embodying this invention, and

Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a television receiver embodying this invention.

Referring first to Fig. 1, the partially doubly balanced modulator used in Figs. 2 and 3 will be dmcribed. A pair of similar vacuum tubes V1 and V2 have their cathodes connected together and to ground. A source of intelligence signals 10 supplies a signal directly to grid G1 of the tube V1, and throughphase splitter 11 and attenuator 12 to a corresponding grid G2 of the tube V2. The grids G1 and G2 are biased negatively by the batteries B1 and B2 respectively, for class A operation of the tubes V1 and V2. A sinusoidal carrier generator .13 supplies a sine wave carrier signal directly to grid G3 of the tube V1, and through phase reverser 14 to corresponding grid G4 of the tube V2, the carrier signal being delivered 180 out-of-phase to corresponding grids ofthe two tubes. The plates of the two tubes are tied together and connected to B+, and deliver a modulated The receiver of Fig. 3 would have a conventional circuit which is not shown, for synchronizing the local desampling carrier generator 133 with the sampling carrier generator 13A of Fig. 2.

It may be preferred, depending upon operating conditions, to reduce the ratio a /a below 2 in the sampler by readjusting the attenuation constant k in order to reduce the undesirable effect due to the folded-over information appearing in the lower band 0-w,,/2. In doing this, loss of amplitude in the recovered upper band w,/2-w, can be made up byincreasing the ratio a la ab0ve '2 in the desampler 20B. 1 In the modulator of Fig. 1, the ratio a /a cannot be made less than a'minimum value fixed by the operating condition of the modulator tubes as previously described. In order to provide a range for a a from that minimum value to zero, it is only necessary to remove the phase splitter 11 of Fig. 1, converting the modulator to singly balanced operation. The amount of the product term between the input signal and the carrier can be controlled in this way by adjusting the attenuation constant k because the carriers applied to the two modulator tubes are 180 out-ofphase. Thus the systems shown by Figs. 1-3 can have complete control of the relative amplitudes at their. outputs between the information in the band O-w,,/2 and that in the band w,,/2w,,.

Among the' advantages of this invention are: (1) Sinusoidal waveform forsampling rather than short, or wide, square wave pulses, is used. It is more economical to generate asinusoidal waveform than short, or wide, square wave pulses. For high definition TV, the same result can be obtained as for impulse (zero width pulse) sampling. (2) Complete control of the amplitude of the interlaced information. As previously described, the ratio of a /a can be adjusted by changing the attenuation constant k. This ratio can be varied from infinity (k=1) to a value fixed by the operating condition of the modulator tubes. It can be reduced to zero by omitting the phase splitter of Fig. 1. By taking advantage of this ability to adjust the ratio a /a the loss of amplitude in the unfolded band (w 2 to w,) due to the transmission of the interlaced information at reduced amplitude, can be made up by increasing the ratio a /a above 2 in the desampler at the receiver. This cannot be accomplished in prior art desamplers.

While the present invention has been described with reference to a particular embodiment only, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that it is not so limited but is susceptible of various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. For example, the amplifier devices V1 and V2, though shown as vacuum tubes, alternatively may comprise semiconductor amplifiers or, other known signal amplification devices. Likewise the attenuator 12 may be supplanted, within the scope of this invention, by any of various known circuit arrangements for supplying intelligence signals having a predetermined amplitude ratio to the control electrodes G1 and G2.

What is claimed is:

1. A modulator, comprising a pair of similar electron devices, each having two input electrodes and an output electrode, means for applying intelligence signals to one of the input electrodes of one of said devices, means for applying intelligence signals of opposite phase and lesser amplitude, to the corresponding input electrode of the other of said devices, a sinusoidal carrier wave generator, means connected to said generator and the other input electrodes of said devices for delivering carrier signals substantially 180 apart in phase to said other input electrodes, and means connecting said output electrodes together and to a modulated signal output connection.

2. A modulator as claimed in claim 1 in which a pair of corresponding input electrodes of said devices are biased negatively for causing said devices to operate class A.

3. A modulator for restricted bandwidth signalling systems, comprising a pair of electron discharge devices, each having a cathode, an anode, a first control grid between said cathode and anode, and a second control grid between said first control grid and said anode, means grounding said cathodes, means negatively biasing said first control electrodes for causing said devices to operate class A, an intelligence signal input connection connected to one of said first control grids, a phase splitter and an attenuator connected in series between said input connection and the other of said first control grids for applying intelligence signal of opposite phase and lesser amplitude thereto, a sinusoidal carrier wave generator, means connected to said generator and to said second grids for delivering carriers apart in phase to said other grids, and means connecting said anodes together and to a modulated signal output connection.

4. A partially doubly balanced modulator for restricted bandwidth signalling systems, comprising a pair of similar electron discharge devices, each having a cathode, an anode and a pair of spaced apart grids between said cathode and anode, means connecting said cathodes to ground, means negatively biasing a grid of each of said devices for causing said devices to operate class A, an intelligence signal input connection connected to one grid of one of said devices, a phase splitter and an attenuator connected in series between said input connection and one grid of the other of said devices for applying intelligence signal of opposite phase and lesser amplitude thereto, a sinusoidal carrier Wave generator, means connected to said generator and to the other grids of said devices for delivering carriers 180 apart in phase to said other grids, and means connecting said anodes together and to a modulated signal output connection.

5. In a restricted bandwidth signalling system, first and second similar amplifiers each having an output circuit and first and second signal input circuits, said amplifiers each being responsive to first and second input signals applied respectively to said first and second input circuits to produce sideband signals corresponding to modulation of one of said input signals by the other and to simultaneously reproduce both said first and sec ond input signals, means for providing a carrier signal comprising a substantially sinusoidal voltage wave having a predetermined fundamental frequency w means for applying said carrier wave in phase opposition and substantially equal amplitude to the second input circuits of said amplifiers, a source of intelligence signals which include at least one low frequency component having a frequency w and at least one high frequency component having a frequency w with w;, and w being respectively lower and higher than w /2, phase splitting means coupled to said source to provide like intelligence signals in 180 out of phase relation, means for decreasing the amplitude of one of said out of phase intelligence signals relative to the other, means for applying said out of phase intelligence signals of unequal amplitude respectively to the first input circuits of said first and second amplifiers, a common load for said amplifiers, means coupling the output circuits of both said amplifiers in parallel to said common load for combining the outputs of said amplifiers in additive relation so that the modulation sidebands are added, the reproduced carrier signals are canceled and the unequal amplitude intelligence signals are subtracted to produce a remnant intelligence signal corresponding to the difference in amplitudes of the input intelligence signals, bandpass filtering means coupled to said common load and having a high frequency cutoff at w /2 for attenuating sideband components and remnant intelligence signal components have frequencies exceeding w /2 and for producing restricted bandwidth composite signals including said intelligence component W and at least one sideband component having a frequency equal to w, minus W 6. In a reduced bandwidth signalling system, a pair .of similar-electron valve 'devicesveach havinga cathode,

ananode and ra plurality oficontrol electrodes, means for providing acarrier signal comprising a sinusoidal voltage Wave: having a; predetermined; frequencymw means fonapplyingsaid carrier signal inv phase opposition andsubstantiaIly equal amplitude to vlike-control electrodes of. sa id;va1ve devices,; a,-s ource of intelligence signals; which-includeatleast -;one low frequency intelligence component having a frequency w;, and atleast one high frequency intelligence component having vehfreq y rr iththe said rreq e cies wa and H- ein respectivelylower-and higher than w /2, means for applyingsaidintelligence signals in phase opposition and with; substantially unequalarnplitudes t0 .Corresponding control electrodes of each of said valve devices, a cornmon output:eircuitcoupled between the anode and cathode of both saiddevicesandincluding a low pass filter means for deriving a; reduced bandwidth-composite signal including said low frequency intelligence component w and at,-least one carrier ,wave sideband component havinga frequency equal tow minus W and means coupled to, said output circuit for ttransmitting said composite signal Within a restricted bandwidth signalling cha nnel having a bandwidth of the order of w /2',

-.--f/..I-n a television ;;si-gnal transmission. bandwidth-reduction. apparatus, a source of :video, signals including lcoarse video; components having frequencies; less than a predetermined frequency W /Zand fine detail video cornponentsrhavingfrequencies exceeding said. predetermined fXf6qIl6DCy ,W apartially doubly balanced modulator ,tially lSO? out-ot phase relation i9. oppositely modulate th cond t i s of ai Pr nc pal 1 ur entepa h pass filter, meanscoupling both said seeond ele a common" output; circuit to produce; thereacr-os duced bandwidth composite yideosignal includin coarse video components and at' least one earrier Si b nd component ar n -v a;fr quencyieq a y -to we minus, we he c z a p esentshe fi eqi nsr n of; said-.fine detail video components,,and means 7 A Pi o said im an i nve nef id gpmposi e 

